A friend summed it up nicely, "2020, the year the bins went out more than us". However, bucking the trend of this year's theme, Nikki and I did get to go out Friday night.
As I've probably previously mentioned, my daughter and her fella run a pub in Cheltenham called The Restoration. Since about mid September, they've started hosting "open mic nights" again every other Friday. To the uninitiated, it's basically a gig where anybody can turn up and have a go, but only the guy supplying the PA gets paid.
Or in normal times, that would be the case. In this modern age, you have to book your table and your slot to perform in advance, and demand is high so you'd better get in early. And you have to bring your own kit; no borrowing microphones or instruments anymore.
In that bygone age of innocence back at the beginning of this year when you could just turn up, ask for a spot and borrow the organiser's guitar, I did a few of these with my brother. In part to support Tash and Dan with their new pub, in part because it was a pleasant change from the pressures and expectations of the band.
Now "the Big C" no longer means quite what it did a year ago, we're all socially bemasked and isolated from other human contact, and all my gigs appear to have been cancelled for the foreseeable, the fact that the Resto has resumed their open mic nights has provided a bit of a lifeline and release for me, and I suspect more than a few others.
Anyway, this Friday just gone I stuck my phone on a table before I went up to take my turn and pressed record. Sorry about the quality of the noise - and not so much about the quality of the performance; it's true, I have no shame.
In any case, if you chose to press play and spend twelve minutes of your life you'll never get back watching what follows, the three songs from Friday were:
Be More Kind, by Frank Turner
Goodnight Salvador Dali, by yours truly
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), by Greenday
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